The present invention relates to communication or telecommunication. More particularly, the present invention provides a technique, including a method and system, for monitoring and allocating bandwidth on a telecommunication network. As merely an example, the present invention is implemented on a wide area network of computers or workstations such as the Internet. But it would be recognized that the present invention has a much broader range of applicability including local area networks, a combination of wide and local area networks and the like.
Telecommunication techniques have been around for numerous years. In the early days, people such as the American Indians communicated to each other over long distances using xe2x80x9csmoke signals.xe2x80x9d Smoke signals were generally used to transfer visual information from one geographical location to be observed at another geographical location. Since smoke signals could only be seen over a limited range of geographical distances, they were soon replaced by a communication technique known as telegraph. Telegraph generally transferred information from one geographical location to another geographical location using electrical signals in the form of xe2x80x9cdotsxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cdashesxe2x80x9d over transmission lines. An example of commonly used electrical signals is Morse code. Telegraph has been, for the most part, replaced by telephone. The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in the 1800s to transmit and send voice information using electrical analog signals over a telephone line, or more commonly a single twisted pair copper line. Most industrialized countries today rely heavily upon telephone to facilitate communication between businesses and people, in general.
In the 1990s, another significant development in the telecommunication industry occured. People began communicating to each other by way of computers, which are coupled to the telephone lines or telephone network. These computers or workstations coupled to each other can transmit many types of information from one geographical location to another geographical location. This information can be in the form of voice, video, and data, which have been commonly termed as xe2x80x9cmultimedia.xe2x80x9d Information transmitted over the Internet or Internet xe2x80x9ctrafficxe2x80x9d has increased dramatically in recent years. In fact, the increased traffic has caused congestion, which leads to problems in responsiveness and throughput. This congestion is similar to the congestion of automobiles on a freeway, such as those in Silicon Valley from the recent xe2x80x9cboomxe2x80x9d in high technology companies, including companies specializing in telecommunication. As a result, individual users, businesses, and others have been spending more time waiting for information, and less time on productive activities. For example, a typical user of the Internet may spend a great deal of time attempting to view selected sites, which are commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cWebsites,xe2x80x9d on the Internet. Additionally, information being sent from one site to another through electronic mail, which is termed xe2x80x9ce-mail,xe2x80x9d may not reach its destination in a timely or adequate manner. In effect, quality of service or Quality of Service (xe2x80x9cQoSxe2x80x9d) of the Internet has decreased to the point where some messages are being read at some time significantly beyond the time the messages were sent.
Quality of Service is often measured by responsiveness, including the amount of time spent waiting for images, texts, and other data to be transferred, and by throughput of data across the Internet, and the like. Other aspects may be application specific, for example, jitter, quality of playback, quality of data transferred across the Internet, and the like. Three main sources of data latency include: the lack of bandwidth at the user (or receiving) end, the general congestion of Internet, and the lack of bandwidth at the source (or sending) end.
A solution to decreasing data latency includes increasing the bandwidth of the user. This is typically accomplished by upgrading the network link, for example by upgrading a modem or network connection. For example, the network link may be upgraded to X2 modems, 56K modems, ADSL or DMT modems, ISDN service and modems, cable TV service and modems, and the like. Drawbacks to these solutions include that they typically require additional network service; they also require additional hardware and/or software, and further they require both the sender and receiver to both agree on using the same hardware and/or software. Although one user may have a much faster line or faster modem, another user may still rely on the same 1,200 kbaud modem. So, the speed at which information moves from one location to another location is often determined by the slowest information which is being transferred over the network. Accordingly, users of faster technology are basically going nowhere, or xe2x80x9crunningxe2x80x9d nowhere fast, as is commonly stated in the network industry.
From the above, it is seen that a technique for improving the use of a wide area network is highly desirable.
The present invention relates to a technique including a method and system for providing more quality to telecommunication services. More particularly, the present invention relates to quality of service management using computer network firewalls or using a firewall system for implementing quality of service management, which can also be referred to as xe2x80x9cbandwidthxe2x80x9d mangement.
In a specific embodiment, the present invention provides a novel system for a network of computers to improve quality of services using a combination of a bandwidth mangement tool in a firewall. The present system includes, among other elements, a plurality of computers, which are each coupled to each other to form an internal network of computers (e.g., local area network or LAN). The system also includes a server, which has a memory sufficient to store a firewall program. The server is coupled to at least one of the plurality of computers, where the server is also coupled to an outgoing line to a wide area network of computers, which can be, for example, the Intenet. A bandwidth management tool is coupled to or stored in the server, where the bandwidth management tool is capable of monitoring incoming and outgoing information to and from the server.
In an alternative embodiment, the present invention provides an easy to use method for installing a bandwidth mangement tool into a server, which is used as a firewall for a network of computers. The network of computers can each be coupled to each other to form a local area network, but is not limited to such a local area network. The server includes, among other elements, a computer memory, which can be a hard drive, a floppy drive, a random access memory, and combinations thereof, and others. The computer memory stores the firewall program. The present method includes a step of installing a bandwidth management tool into a portion of the computer memory. Installation can occur using a variety of techniques such as transferring the tool from a removable storage device such as a floppy disk, CD ROM, removable hard disk, and the like. Alternatively, the bandwidth mangement tool can be uploaded from a site to the server using, for example, a modem. The bandwidth management tool is capable of monitoring incoming and outgoing information to and from the server to improve quality of services of the network of computers.
Numerous advantages are achieved by way of the present invention over pre-existing or conventional techniques. In a specific embodiment, the present invention provides a single point or a single region to manage telecommunication traffic including directory services and bandwidth management. Additionally, in some, if not all embodiments, the present invention can be implemented at a single point of access such as a computer terminal or firewall, for example. Furthermore, the present invention can be predominately software based and can be implemented into a pre-existing system by way of a relatively simple installation process. These and other advantages are described throughout the present specification, and more particularly below.
Further understanding of the nature and advantages of the invention may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification, drawings, and attached documents